Venture Capitalist Tim Draper Wins 30,000 Bitcoins in the auction by the US Govt.

Though several renowned investors put their bids for 30,000 Bitcoins auctioned by the US government that it took away from Silk Road, the winner came in venture capitalist Tim Draper. He was the single winning bidder for a cache of Bitcoins. This co-founder of investment firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson will now work with startup Vaurum.

Draper will now be working towards providing access to Bitcoins in developing economies and use the about 30,000 Bitcoins his company won in the auction as a source of liquidity. In a statement issued to media he admitted that Bitcoin frees people from trying to operate in a modern market economy with weak currencies.
Therefore, with the help of Vaurum and this newly purchased Bitcoin, he expects to be able to create new services that can provide liquidity and confidence to markets that have been hamstrung by weak currencies. There is still a lot of Bitcoin with the US government as it auctioned only 29,656 Bitcoins out of more than 144,000.

There were 45 bidders which included some renowned entities like New York brokerage SecondMarket Inc. The actual price of the winning bid isn’t known yet; however, the cache sold on June 30 was worth about $19 million at current exchange prices.

What is Vaurum?

Vaurum has come to the news after the win in the bid by Draper Fisher and his statement that he will be working with this firm to promote the digital currency to new regions. It’s a company based in Palo Alto, California. This startup enables companies including banks and brokerages to trade and store Bitcoins on behalf of customers.
Earlier this year, Vaurum raised $4 million in seed funding from investors including Draper, Battery Ventures and America Online Inc. co-founder Steve Case. The company invests in Bitcoin startups and was founded by Tim Draper’s son, Adam Draper who says that all in on Vaurum, Bitcoin, and Bitcoin adding a tremendous amount of value in the developing world.
Vaurum Chief Executive Officer Avish Bhama shares his views with Adam Draper as well when he says that collectively, his company has been brainstorming to come up with new ways to help grow global Bitcoin adoption.

He said that what his company came up with is a way to leverage our exchanges and utilize the auctioned pool of Bitcoins, as well as market making strategies, to help provide liquidity in these underserved markets.